Like a Stepping Stone
by CatalynnCastellan
Summary: What really happened when Luke visited Annabeth in San Fran before Battle of the Labyrinth?


My heartbeat gos faster and my breath quickens. Luke Castellan is on my front porch. "Luke? W-"

"Listen, Annabeth. I only need five minutes to talk. Please." Luke begs, a frantic light in his bright blue eyes. I'm at a loss for words. I don't know whether I should be relieved or repulsed. I don't know whether I should try to comfort him or run away. "What's wrong?" I finally manage, trying to hide the fear in my voice. But it's not for me. Despite everything he has put me through, I still love that fourteen year old boy who saved my life on the streets, and I know he's still in there somewhere. He looks around nervously, as if he were being stalked. "You don't know what danger I'm putting you in right now, Annabeth. By just being here." He whispers.

"I would if you just tell me." I say gently. "Things aren't going as planned, Annabeth. I thought Kronos just needed me to slip by your defenses at camp, but there is so much more that he wants. He's going to use me _like a stepping stone. _To take over the world_." _A cold shiver runs down my spine. "How exactly?"

"He's going to use my body as a host, to become even more powerful. He's focusing all of his entire being into me. He's literally going to burn me out."

"Why…why are you telling me this?" I ask him, analyzing his face carefully, searching for anything that tells me I should not trust him.

I don't find anything.

"Annabeth, we've still got time. We can run away, just like the old days, just like you and me."

"A lot has changed since the old days."

"That doesn't mean we can't have them again. Please, Annabeth, help me. Let's run away." He begs, taking my hand. I look up into his worried blue eyes, so unlike the ones I had always known.

Then it hits me. Any feelings of hope are severed from my being, my love for him evaporates, just like that. Because I realize what he is trying to do.

"You're lying to me, Luke. Again. " I say angrily, pulling my hand from his. His eyes widen in alarm, then understanding. He begins protesting, but I'm so furious that I've allowed myself to fall for it again, I can't even hear him. "Annabeth." He says, his tone more pleading than before. "I swear on the river Styx that that's not why I'm here."

"It's a trick. You're a liar, Luke. I fell for it last time, and it isn't happening again." I say bitterly, remembering the time last winter when he had lured me to the Titans by making me believe he was hurt. It fills me with the same bitter feelings of hatred, of destroyed love, and want I had felt for him as if I were experiencing the entire thing all over again. "I tried to get them to spare you. I know that probably doesn't matter, but…please?" he asks, his voice quiet and gentle, obviously trying to calm me. I ignore him and ask him the one question I've been wanting to for three years.

"All that talk about how I and Thalia were the only people you cared about, how you said you loved me..That was all lies, wasn't it?" I demand.

"No." he replies calmly. "You and Thalia were and are the most important people in my life. That's why I want to keep you safe. Kronos shows me things about you. He says you're in danger, that you have to stay away from…Rome?" I shake my head. He was trying to distract me. "That has nothing to do with what we're talking about, Luke."

"It does, because I promised to protect you, and I can't stand to see you get hurt because of me. Come on, we could leave. Maybe find Thalia, run away."

It did seem like a beautiful idea. But Thalia wasn't going to leave her Huntresses, and I wasn't going to leave San Francisco. "There's no way." I reply simply. His cold hand reaches out to rest on my burning cheek. "Then at least let me say goodbye." I scowl at his touch, afraid he's going to hurt me, and pull away. "Don't….touch. Me." I threaten, my hand instinctively falling to my dagger. The one he'd given me seven years ago. Oh, the irony. Seeing that, his face turns angry, his body tenses.

"You'd better fight me now, it'll be the last chance you get." He says bitterly, looking up at me. I remain calm, exhaling once, before I finally decide what to say.

"I can't hurt you the way you hurt us. Not even you deserve that."

He regards me coldly for a moment and disappears into the streets, not looking back once.

**Hey, guys! What'd you think? How do you think this all went down? Did you think I captured the gist of it? Anything you notice is off, leave a review. But almost everything I got from what Annabeth tells Percy. Really, she only says like, three sentences, but I am a very demanding person. I want to know what happens! Review, please!**


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